I recently had a meeting with Mark Burnett in his LA offices regarding his proposed network show entitled The Shark Tank.
I had met Mark at his way cool Mark Burnett Productions compound about a year ago when he was producing The Pirate Master. I had supplied him with my book Pirate Soul – A Swashbuckling Journey Through the Golden Age of Pirates as a reference source for his Caribbean adventure show. So even though the excitement I typically experience when visiting a new environment was less that my Red Alert status, the energy I felt in the presence of this pioneer of reality TV was once again volcanic!
I love entrepreneurial risk takers!
You may be familiar with the name of Mark Burnett as the creator/producer of Survivor or The Apprentice, but his rags-to-riches personal tale is much more than a credit on the TV screen. In fact, his story should be taught in high schools across America. Even though the guy is a Brit!
Most people don’t know that Mark began his amazing rise in Hollywood at the bottom of the proverbial career ladder as a nanny in LA. That’s right! The first gig this former British paratrooper landed when he hit the US with only lint and 600 bucks in his pocket was as a nanny for a wealthy Beverly Hills family. He attacked his duties with his ever-present gusto leading one of his clients to steer him toward selling insurance. A couple of years later the seeds of his entrepreneurial DNA took root and Mark started peddling t-shirts at Venice Beach. But it wasn’t until his passion for adventure was fully ignited with his entry into the torturous French adventure competition - Raid Gauloises - that he jumped into TV production with Eco-Challenge.
Mark’s captivating story is fully captured in his autobiography Jump In!
A nanny, insurance salesman, peddling t-shirts, and adventure athlete seem like a far cry from sitting at the top of Hollywood’s realty TV uber-producer list – earning multimillions in production, syndication, licensing, and product placement fees. But if you research the histories of many successful entrepreneurs and risk-taking pioneers you will notice that success leaves clues.
Mark’s biography is a telling tale about taking action on your passion, overcoming setbacks, failures, and naysayers, maintaining a laser beam-like focus, and literally jumping in with both feet with an expectation of success. Sounds familiar.
By the way, Mark is also very straight forward. No bullshit! In fact, during our meeting he said he loved my high energy persona, my television presence, and my business acumen, but (uh oh) since The Shark Tank has a similar format as American Inventor - the TV show I appeared on last season that was not renewed by ABC – there may be an issue with casting me as one of the Sharks.
Bummer.
I looked him in the eyes, smiled, and said: “I understand. But know this – I’d kill it for you!”
Josh Pyatt, Mark Burnett, and me in Mark’s office in Hollywood, CA.
This entry was posted
on Monday, April 21st, 2008 at 8:34 am by Pat Croce
Leave a Reply
April 23rd, 2008 at 7:14 pm
Pat, I know this has nothing to do with blog but I know you are a Jimmy Buffett fan as you mentioned in I Feel Great. Check out Kenny Chesney if you like Buffett. He is pretty damm good and has some great tunes for the Ipod when you workout. Thx
July 5th, 2008 at 11:55 am
Pat, I would like to get more info on Shark Tank. Can you point me in the right direction? Many Thanks!
December 27th, 2008 at 4:22 pm
Hi Pat, my name is Sylvester and i am a idea man/inventor and i have thought of a twist for The Shark Tank type show maybe you could pass my info on to your contacts.What shows are in development for 2009 of a similar ilk 231-468-2568 thanks for your info